Sterling 'Flip-Flopped Like a Fish' on Clippers Sale, Wife's Attorney Says

By BILL HETHERMAN
City News Service

Clippers owner Donald Sterling repeatedly consented to his wife selling the Clippers while facing the prospect of being stripped of the team by the NBA, then suddenly changed his mind and disregarded the terms of the family trust, Shelly Sterling’s attorney told a judge today.

“He flip-flopped like a fish out of water,” Pierce O’Donnell said in his final argument in a non-jury trial to determine whether Shelly Sterling can sell the Clippers to former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer for $2 billion.

Sterling and his lawyers then proceeded to falsely claim Shelly Sterling and two doctors who found her husband mentally incompetent all were part of a secret plan to remove the Clippers boss as a co-trustee, O’Donnell said.

“Donald Sterling never met a conspiracy he didn’t like,” O’Donnell said.

But Donald Sterling’s attorney, Maxwell Blecher, said Shelly Sterling should have told her husband beforehand that if the two doctors who examined him found him incompetent, it could set the stage for him to be removed from the trust and clear the way for her to sell the team.

“She was his wife, his co-trustee, she had the obligation to be completely candid with him,” Blecher said.

Instead, Shelly Sterling, her attorneys and the doctors moved forward their plan to remove Sterling, Blecher said.

“To me it’s the height of gall for these petitioners to come to court with this dirty little scheme,” Blecher said.

Judge Michael Levanas, who has been presiding over the trial, surprised court observers when he announced that he planned to issue a tentative ruling from the bench when closing arguments conclude this afternoon.

He told the lawyers he wanted the closing arguments focused on whether Shelly Sterling had authority under the family trust to remove her husband as a co-trustee because of his alleged mental incompetence and whether her husband’s subsequent revocation of the trust had any effect on her ability to sell the team to Ballmer.

O’Donnell cited the testimony of one of Donald Sterling’s own witnesses, Dr. Jeffrey Cummings, who acknowledged under cross-examination that the two doctors who found the Clippers owner incompetent did not have to state the reason for their examinations beforehand. Cummings is an expert in Alzheimer’s disease.

O’Donnell decried what he called unfair characterizations of his client during the trial as a “liar, cheat, thief and a monkey.” He said Shelly Sterling had her husband’s best interests at heart when she had him examined because he appeared confused during an interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper after the release of the Clippers owner’s secretly recorded racist remarks to former girlfriend V. Stiviano. The recording led the NBA to impose a lifelong ban from the league and fine Sterling $2.5 million.

“Donald was examined because Shelly cared for him,” O’Donnell said.

Donald Sterling wanted his wife to sell the team because he feared worse consequences from the NBA if she did not, O’Donnell said.

“She did his bidding and she got a $2 billion figure,” O’Donnell said.

But Blecher said Sterling was competent and running a $4.5 billion sports team operation. He said Sterling never intended for his wife to put the team on the market.

“This is a man who didn’t sell anything his whole life,” Blecher said.